How I Got Ed Sheeran Tickets (thank you, Jesus)

Ed Sheeran tickets went on sale this morning at 10am and sold out in minutes – did you manage to snag any?

I was online at 10am and waiting for tickets on two websites at the same time. On one site, I was held in a queue indefinitely. On the second site, I could see I was 48,000th in line. I wish I was exaggerating.

However, because I’m nothing if not persistent, I was also on the phone dialling Ticketmaster repeatedly – and I got through on the 5th try! Hurrah!

Unfortunately, Ticketmaster’s phone line only lets you look for tickets for 2 venues/dates before it cuts you off – and there were no tickets left on either of the 2 dates I tried. By 10.09am, all the seated tickets for the tour had been sold, and I was out of luck.

Nuts.

As it happens, I already had tickets, thanks to a pre-sale on Tuesday – today, I was trying to snag some for my brother and his family. Given I don’t have a proper job, it’s a bit easier for me to go through the ticket-chasing business. But it’s not always going to work – in which case, you’re going to need my…

Sneaky Tips for Getting Hot Tickets

My top, top tip for getting tickets to see popular artists… when you suspect they’re about to announce a tour, join their mailing list. That’s how I managed to snag tickets for Taylor Swift’s tour early, and the same tactic paid dividends with Ed, when tickets were released for a small number of dates on Tuesday morning.

Yeah, sure, friends mocked me for joining Taylor Swift’s online fan club, but they soon stopped laughing when we got SECOND ROW tickets in one of the closest blocks to the stage at Manchester Arena.

Oh, also – join the venue’s mailing list.

After the pre-sale for Ed Sheeran on Tuesday, there was a second pre-sale on Wednesday for tickets for the Barclaycard Arena. I only found out because I’d signed up for theirmailing list, too.

Barclaycard often gives cardholders early access to tickets at the venue, too – basically make sure if you have a mobile phone company that has entertainment sponsorship, or a credit card, MAKE SURE you’re on the email list!

Another trick I’ve learned (if you don’t mind paying a little more) is to be a member of Amplify, which offers hospitality tickets for Birmingham arenas. Usually you’ll pay around £120-150 per ticket rather than £70, but for this you’ll get premium parking, pre-concert dining and interval drinks – plus early access to buying tickets, in many cases.

Even if you’re not buying early, tickets on Amplify are often sold out later than the regular tickets. You don’t have to be a member to buy Amplify tickets, by the way, but you won’t get early ticket access if you’re not.

Of course, there ARE tickets available to Ed Sheeran gigs.

At 10.25 this morning I checked GetMeIn, the resale ticket side owned by Ticketmaster, where you can sell tickets you no longer need or want. And sure enough, there were already 89 tickets available to the Saturday night Ed Sheeran gig in Manchester – with prices ranging from £260 up to £770. This for tickets that cost between £40 and £70 face value.

What ENRAGES me about this is that ticket touts clearly bought tickets with the sole intention of selling them on to mugs like you and me, minutes later. This isn’t, “Oh, I bought tickets and my brother can’t make it,” is it? This is, “Ha! I snagged 4 tickets and I can now make 3 grand in 10 minutes. Result!”

Ticket touts – you are bad, bad people.

As well as being extortionately expensive, let’s not forget the fact that there’s nothing to prevent tickets on GetMeIn and the like from being fake or duplicate tickets. Yes, Ticketmaster offers you a refund if your tickets are fake and will try and replace them. But what sort of consolation is that if you’ve missed a concert you’ve been looking forward to for months?

Ed Sheeran himself says the “official” resale site for the tour is Twickets, which only sells tickets at face value plus postage – but there’s absolutely NO requirement to sell your tickets there, if you’d rather make a huge pile of cash from the likes of GetMeIn. He’s not a fan of the touts any more than we are. But what can he do?

I’m not sure what the solution is – we live in a free country, and if some idiot wants to buy something cheap and sell it expensive, and there’s someone willing to buy from them, then I guess all’s fair in love and concert tickets.

But I can’t help thinking that it stinks for people like my brother and his family, who can’t afford to pay thousands for a few tickets, and will miss the concert as a result.

Sally is a full-time blogger and founder of the Tots100, Trips100, Foodies100 and HIBS100 communities, along with the MAD Blog Awards. She spends a bit too much time on the Internet. She's also a very happy Mum to Flea, the world's coolest ten year old.

6 Comments

Great tips for getting tickets. I really hate Ticket touts though. I have had tickets in the past that I could have easily made a bomb by selling them, but I just can’t agree. The sad thing is, if people buy them then the touts will keep selling them.

Things are slowly changing – Iron Maiden (yes, I know, pretty sure you won’t have seen this while you were in the Ed Sheeran/Taylor Swift queue) have declared a ‘no resale’ rule on their latest tour, and if every artist starts using the same rules the ticket tout days may finally be numbered. This is what they do:

“We want fans to get their tickets at the price that we set, not a vastly inflated one. When individuals/companies buy up tickets and put them on the secondary market immediately they’re clearly only in it for profit, and every ticket they’ve bought is one which a genuine fan cannot buy for face value – this is called Touting. We’ve all seen the situation where a show is ‘sold out’ but there are plenty of tickets available at increased prices on the secondary market – that needs to stop.

What are Iron Maiden doing about it?

By going paperless wherever possible, we have a lot more ability to monitor who’s bought tickets and what they’re doing with them:

– We’ll be monitoring ticket sales in real-time, from our fanclub presale onwards through general sale, so we can spot suspicious activity and report it to the right people. – All tickets are not for resale. – We’re working closely with Live Nation and Ticketmaster to ensure that (to the best of our abilities) secondary ticketing sites are prevented from listing Iron Maiden shows. – Where tickets are not paperless, they will have the cardholder’s name printed on them, and you’ll need to bring the card and photo ID to the show. – Wherever possible, we’ll endeavor to cancel tickets purchased through dubious means – especially bots and multiple credit card efforts. ”

Ticket touring greedy ba******s argggh. I was on their site for a whole 20 minutes on three different websites trying to buy two tickets (as was my husband at his work) and we finally got through to the words “sold out” everywhere. I was gutted. Fab tips though. I never thought about the mailing list!Notmyyearoff recently posted..Chinese New Year and the Terracotta Army

Ah rubbish that your bro didn’t manage to get tickets. Great that you got some though, loving the tips. Luckily my two are years off from wanting to go to anything vaguely popular. If ever there’s a rush on Mr Tumble tickets I’ll be checking out your tips. Nat.xPlutonium Sox recently posted..Thursday Photo #143

You’re absolutely right. It’s infuriating. I have a few bands that I see on pretty much every tour they do – Bloc Party, Maximo Park etc and have done for the last 12 years – being on their mailing list is key!Colette recently posted..Just Me & Him {Ordinary Moments}